I was comparing some footage today to see how much of a difference there was between component and HDMI. In doing so I placed the HV20 right up against my plasma, toward the center, to accomodate both the component & HDMI connections that come from different areas behind the plasma.

I hit play and began to see dropouts gallore. Whoa!! I had never seen a dropout on the HV20 prior to this. After reading a couple of people having this issue, I thought 'uh oh'. So I took the tape out and blew into the tape compartment thinking it was a piece of dirt on the heads. I put the tape back in and the dropouts were still there. Uh oh.

Well I picked up the cam as it was playing the tape and all of a sudden the dropouts stopped. I was relieved and put the cam back against the plasma and the dropouts began immediately! OK, I'm getting it now, it's the placement adjacent to the plasma! Sure enough every time I moved the cam even 3" from the plasma glass, the dropouts stopped completely. As soon as I moved the cam up against the bottom of the plasma glass, the dropouts began again.

So guys, I'm not sure how many (if any) this affects, but there is unquestionably a message here: Do NOT place the camera immediately adjacent to the plasma while playing tapes. By adjacent I'm talking about virtually touching the plasma glass. As soon as you move it only a couple of inches, you're good to go. Interesting eh?

Not to be condescending or anything, but i wouldn't place anything ON or right against the glass of a plasma, it isnt worth "accidents" or "opps's" or anything of that matter to have a scratched plasma. I have heard of this as well with the A1 and the wacom tablets as well, so I am sure its just some type of magnetic interference, thought in a plasma, i wouldnt suspect there to be any magnetic fields.

I agree Eric, but the plasma is on a stand and I placed the camcorder on the base of the stand just about butting up against the glass. There really wasn't any danger of scratching the glass.

I agree, there shouldn't be any magnetic interference, but obviously there's some kind of electronic interference that's generated.

get out the tin foil hats...

Yeah, maybe put the cam in a used Jiffy Pop foil container. :)

From page 85 (Troubleshooting) of the free HV20 manual:

Video noise appears on screen.

When using the camcorder in a room where a plasma TV is
located, keep a distance between the camcorder and the
plasma TV.
–
–
Video noise appears on the TV screen.

When using the camcorder in a room where a TV is located,
keep a distance between the compact power adapter and the
power or antenna cables of the TV.
–

So it DOES pay to read the manual! ;)